The Adequan® U.S. Para Dressage Team earned gold in the CHI Al Shaqab CPEDI3* (© CHI Al Shaqab) Lexington, Ky. – The Adequan® U.S. Para Dressage Team had strong performances at CHI Al Shaqab CPEDI3* held February 23-25 in Ar-Rayyan, Qatar. Under the guidance of Chef d’Equipe Michel Assouline, the team of Beatrice de Lavalette and Sixth Sense, Fiona Howard and Jagger, and Kate Shoemaker and Quiana delivered several personal-best scores in FEI competition to secure their...

Wellington, Fla. - The U.S. Dressage U25 Stars and Stripes Team of Ben Ebeling aboard Status Royal OLD and Callie O’Connell and Eaton H took first place Thursday during the FEI Dressage Nations Cup™ USA CDIO-U25 competition at the Adequan® Global Dressage Festival, finishing on a final team score of 139.736 . The U.S. Stars and Stripes Team was led by Chef d’Equipe Charlotte Bredahl. The team finished ahead of the U.S. Dressage U25 Star-Spangled Team (135.500) of Emma...

Lexington, Ky. – US Equestrian is pleased to announce the athletes selected to represent the NetJets ® U.S. Jumping Team at the 2023 FEI Jumping Nations Cup Wellington CSIO4*. The team will be led by Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland. The following athletes have been named to the NetJets U.S. Jumping Team and are listed in alphabetical order: Natalie Dean (Palo Alto, Fla.) Mimi Gochman (Palm Beach, Fla.) Mavis Spencer (Somis, Calif.) Adrienne Sternlicht (Greenwich, Conn.) The CSIO4*...

Alex Waldrop, the former Chief Executive Officer of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), shared U.S. horse racing’s history and recapped some of the challenges that horse racing has faced in the past 15 years. The challenges affected horse racing’s social license to operate and required earnest changes to improve horse welfare. “An old adage comes to mind: ‘If you can’t be a good example, you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.’...

USEF Chief of Sport David O’Connor, University of Kentucky Equine Science professor and member of the FEI Equine Ethics and Welfare Commission, Dr. Camie Heleski, and Chief Executive of World Horse Welfare, Roly Owers, spoke to the USEF Annual Meeting about equestrian sport and the social license to operate. Here are five takeaways from their presentation. 1. Social license to operate is an unofficial but essential piece of the puzzle. Owers describes social license to operate as...

Blacksburg, Va. – On Dec. 7, the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab released the results of its first-ever rating of equestrian helmets. Over the past two years, Virginia Tech researchers analyzed over 100 videos of riders falling off horses, precisely measured the hardness of the sand, dirt, grass, and synthetic surfaces underfoot at equestrian events, and dragged dummy heads and other equipment — and boxes and boxes of helmets — out to Virginia Tech’s equestrian facilities to...

Registration is now open for the 2023 USEF Annual Meeting to be held at the Lexington Central Bank Convention Center in Lexington, Ky., from January 12-14, 2023. The USEF Annual Meeting will feature a newly designed two-day interactive workshop, “Working Together for Our Future,” which will take place Thursday and Friday, January 12-13 leading up to the General Session hosted by Tom O’Mara as well as the Pegasus Awards Celebration on Thursday, January 12, and the SmartPak/USEF...

As the start of the 2023 competition year approaches and new rules come into place, USEF has received feedback from members requesting clarification about the qualification process for the 2023 Devon Horse and Pony Show, Pennsylvania National, Washington International, and the National Horse Show. Additionally, there have been questions raised about how awards separate from prize money affect HOTY standings or qualifications for these competitions. Earlier this Fall, a Presidential Modification...

Kansas City, Mo. – The 2022 competition season for saddle seat equitation riders closed with a grand finale at the UPHA American Royal National Championship in Kansas City. The USEF Saddle Seat Medal Final , one of the oldest and most prestigious classes for saddle seat riders, was held on Saturday, Nov. 12, and saw 15 finalists compete for the championship. ©Howard Schatzberg Ella White (Medina, Ohio) took home the day’s top prize riding Jalapena Lena, her own American...

Mill Spring, N.C. – The Para Dressage competition at Tryon Fall Dressage 3 saw a small but mighty contingent of five up-and-coming combinations who took advantage of the opportunity to gain experience at the CPEDI3* level. The athlete-and-horse pairs completed their FEI Para Dressage Team and Individual Tests, then completed the weekend with the FEI Para Dressage Freestyle Tests. At the end of the three tests, Fiona Howard (Boston, Mass.) had the top combined score to win the CPEDI3*...